ya, when I went to these really low 14/47 gears, I really had to force myself to get over that mental barrier of only revving it up to like 5000 rpms or so. Once I realized I could easily run it all the time at 6500 rpms or more on the highway, I found that I can still ride 85 mph on the highway and have a super low set of gears for the tough trails in the woods.I commute every day on a 60 mph speed limited highway, and I pass people no prob. the ol bike has 32000 miles on it so far, and on the highway at that speed, it Sounds really good too ;)I do a lot of miles though. 40 miles of highway commuting everyday almost and then a few more tanks of gas for fun in the woods almost every weekend too And as you know a tank of gas goes beyond 200 miles So, I ride my klrs at least 15000 miles a year.My poor old vans dont see much active duty anymore.

Awesome Pictures Matt !!Get out there and post up some more, and if you get up this way, come for a rip !https://youtu.be/oZ-nlkP4VcM[youtube]https://youtu.be/oZ-nlkP4VcM[/youtube]

Although I've barely ridden it all year, I did make a couple of upgrades just recently.

I realized last year right after I bought it my speedometer was WAY SLOW. New tires improved things a bit, but it was still off. I figured since I usually have my GPS with me, I'd just use it for a speedometer too.

First I found a handlebar mount for my Oregon GPS.

A little research revealed I could purchase a 12v power cord that would power the GPS and not run my internal batteries down. But this meant I needed a place to plug it in. I was going to install a 12v power port and Googled KLR dashboards to see what other people had built. In doing that, I found a great unit for sale on Ebay at the right price. It is actually made locally here in WA and one option is to have a 12v outlet in it. It even comes with wiring and directions on where to plug it in behind the headlight. (You can see the pigtail in the photo above.)

A nice day, so I took a quick 87 mile ride out to the Ahtanum State Forest west of Yakima (WA) and back. Would have been longer but I underestimated the windchill and found myself underdressed on my upper body.

Anyway, the KLR hasn't been getting the love it deserves the last couple of summers. A few weeks back I took it with me when I went to our cabin and did a great 100+ mile ride. It was probably 65% dirt/gravel and 35% pavement. I much prefer the dirt/gravel!

Right off the bat I noticed at slow speeds the temp gauge was climbing pretty high. Wasn't going into the danger zone, but I didn't recall it ever running this hot. I took a bit of an alternate route back to the cabin and was running pretty slow and noticed the temp gauge had gone into the red; I picked up the pace (to push air through the radiator) the last 1/4 mile and shut it down as soon as I could. After shutting it off, I noticed the electric fan was making a funny noise; turned out the plastic fan had separated from the center mounting bolt and wasn't spinning; the noise was from the fan motor spindle spinning and rattling against the broken fan blade.

So on to Google I went... first to find a replacement fan assembly. Kawi wants nearly $400 for a replacement motor and fan! YIKES! Turns out the problem is somewhat common and an alternate solution is to use a fan from a 500 Ninja which is easy to find on Ebay. (Mine was $20ish shipped.) I ordered it and when it came I just unbolted the fan blade and mounted it up to my old motor. (The new fan is actually a bit different and has an extra blade but everything I read says it works fine.)

As I was reassembling everything, I noticed the hose going from the radiator to the recovery tank was hanging loose at the recovery tank. Upon closer inspection I saw the nipple on the recovery tank was gone/melted. No clue when this happened, but it didn't appear to be recent; hard to tell. Back to Ebay and I found a nice recovery tank for $50 shipped.

I put the bike back together yesterday and all seems well. I ran the bike at idle and let the fan cycle several times while watching the temp gauge stay right in the middle. (It was about 95 degrees outside too.)

Can't wait to get out and ride it again. We have numerous forest fires around here and the smoke has been really thick. Unfortunately the places I want to go and ride are either in or near the fire areas. I'll figure something out.

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